Ukraine president: former MP killing was Russian "state terrorism"

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday that the fatal shooting of a former Russian lawmaker in Kiev was an act of Russian “state terrorism”.

Denis Voronenkov attends a session at the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, in Moscow, Russia, September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Dmitry Dukhanin/Kommersant Photo

Former parliamentarian Denis Voronenkov was killed outside a hotel in the Ukrainian capital earlier on Thursday. Voronenkov fled to Ukraine with his wife last year and was helping the Ukrainian authorities build a treason case against former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich.

Poroshenko said the killing “is an act of state terrorism on the part of Russia, which he was forced to leave for political reasons,” Poroshenko said in a statement.

“Voronenkov was one of the main witnesses of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and, in particular, the role of Yanukovich regarding the deployment of Russian troops to Ukraine.”

Reporting by Alexei Kalmykov,; writing by Matthias Williams,; editing by Larry King